Reinventing yourself Okay, you have been at this a long time, maybe too long, heck twenty, thirty, or even forty years, and now you’re getting a bit, shall we say, long in the tooth and somewhat tired. But you still love the business, and kind of, still like what you do. You like it enough […]
Contract Manufacturers Are Not Exempt From Needing Sales And Marketing
For many years now, too many that I want to count, I have been a real pain in the neck advocating that all board shops need marketing, they need to advertise, send out newsletters, hire and manage, measure, and motivate sales people, create forecasts, and account plans and pay attention to their customers’ needs. Interestingly […]
Getting The Kids Into Manufacturing
Let me tell you about my son Damon. From the time he was thirteen years old he has been fascinated with everything Japanese. I’m not sure how that started, maybe the video games? Anyway, when we moved to Maine in 2012 and he was about to enter his Freshmen year in high school, he asked […]
Stop Procrastinating And Start Prospecting
I know you hate to prospect and you hate to make cold calls, so this is what we have to talk about today. Whether you like it or not. To help us, there is a great book by Mark Hunter called High-Profit Prospecting a trade paperback published by Amacom. This book is a first rate […]
Getting The Most From Walking IPC Apex 2019!
With IPC Apex Expo 2019 coming up next week, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of my ideas for helping visitors who are not exhibiting, but are attending the show. Obviously, we have talked a great deal about how to get the most of your dollars when you exhibit […]
Nurturing Your PCB Talent
There is no doubt there is a shortage of young people in our business. As we all get older, the challenge of finding young people to replace us is getting more severe. So, I thought it only appropriate that this week we would talk about that nurturing process, training them to become not only viable, […]
A Word From The Future: Some Notable Highlights From CES 2019
No, I didn’t go, sorry, I still have to spend my time earning a living and working with my favorite people, my customers. Many of my friends though, did get a chance to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week and here are some of the more impressive peeks into our […]
When Will PCB Shops Understand Rep Firms?
I spend a lot of my time helping board shops with their rep issues. I spend a lot of time trying to convince these shops that they are going to have to change the way they handle their rep relationships and start treating them as partners rather than second hand citizens if they want this […]
Turning Over A New Page
The excitement of a new year! Turning over a new page. One year ends, and another begins. Isn’t that refreshing? Isn’t that a great feeling of renewal? Throwing out all of those old calendars, and hanging those new ones up on the way. Or, opening up that brand new date book for a symbolic, as […]
Where Will We Be in Five Years? Or Maybe Three?
Recently, a good friend of mine, an owner of a PCB shop in the U.S. ,asked for my thoughts on what the North American Market would look like in five years. Good question isn’t it? With everything going on in the world , it is a good time so stop, and take stock. So, after […]